Hard core insomnia

[FiercenBed]

yea itz me again....i should change my screen name to wussyboy. anyway....same old story diagnosed july kaletra and truvada and all sorta problems this week. all this week iv been having hard core insomnia. i had mild problems at first and the doc gave me ambien cr 12.5 which worked well at first. now im waking up 3 times a night and having to take another pill to go back to sleep. it only works for 2 or 3 hours. im not tired during the day kinda hyper actually. cant seem to take nap @ all. concern is things iv read on the internet is that chronic insomnia is a sign of high viral load. i was over 100k when tested then down to 5k after 30 days. am i freaking out over nothing? as iv said b4 the doc just kinda blows me off when i call. i take meds @ 10a & 10p. mayb change times earlier before bed? can you do that w/out a problem? any suggestions? anyone recommend better sleep medicine?

thanx for all the good previous advice.

[penguin]

hello

insomnia, could be caused by lots of things - sounds like you've had a lot to deal with recently,& stress/worry can be a major sleep disruptor.

another possibility is med related...the truvada can, in some people cause difficulties with sleeping
 
This should get better as time goes by...if not, do talk to your dr about the possibility of changing.

in the meantime...whatever the cause, some ideas to help
hope you get some rest..

Kate

edited, cos my brain isn't working and i just read kaletra as sustiva...and so the madness begins.. :-)

[gerry]

concern is things iv read on the internet is that chronic insomnia is a sign of high viral load

Not true.  Though I'd be interested to know where you found this info.

[FiercenBed]

http://www.psych.org/aids/modules/sleep/sld001.htm

[gerry]

Thank you for the link.  That was very comprehensive and informative.  But I still did not find any statement that links chronic insomnia to high viral load (did I miss it?).  The closest I found was this in slide 14 which has an entirely different interpretation:

"Chronic insomnia affects a significant number of persons with HIV/AIDS. Early on in the disease, even while asymptomatic, patients may experience difficulty sleeping. This may be due to anxiety, stress related factors or disruption of sleep architecture from direct virally mediated changes. As the patient becomes symptomatic, sleep difficulties may result from underlying conditions associated with HIV or its systemic complications (e.g., fever, pain,dehydration and poor nutrition). In more advanced disease, sleep difficulties are more prevalent and may be due to the dementing process itself. HIV related medications have negative sleep effects which further intensifies the problem."

[FiercenBed]

i interrupted more advanced the disease = high viral load. like i said im new at this. im relieved if this is not true.

[jjmcm]

When I changed my regimen last fall to include both Kaletra and Fuzeon, my restless nights went from occasional to every night.  Ambien CR could not keep me down at all and left me feeling horrible the next day.  The recently released Rozerem works even less and makes me extremely dizzy.  The only thing that works well for me is Lunesta, every night.  And forgot the no alcohol warning, I drink two glasses of wine in the evening to increase the effectiveness. (red wine for medicinal purposes only of course)

I hate having to take something every night to sleep.  However, if I do not sleep well, my meds are very difficult to manage the next day.  I get even more nauseous than normal and have a hard time eating.

I have talked to other folks with similar problems related to both Kaletra and Fuzeon.  Maybe next year I will be able to abandon both.

I hope you find your way to good sleep...

--JJ

[jack]

alcohol,even wine, can cause you to wake up in the middle of the night. When I drank, even one beer or one glass of wonderful red wine, I was up at 3am.

[Eldon]

Hi Fiercenbed,

I wanted to point out what Gerry had said. Anxiety can be the cause of your disruption of your sleeping patterns. I too had experienced problems with my sleeping. It was found out that my anxiety had something to do with it. You may want to check into this and talk to your Doctor about Anxiety.

There are two types of Anxiety. 1) Is your External Anxiety, 2) Is your Internal Anxiety. External Anxiety is mainly from outside stress situations. It is your Internal Anxiety that takes it to a higher level to include your adrenaline which leads to other things such as panic attacks.

After I somewhat got a hold of my Anxiety I DO sleep betther than I have been for quite some time. You may want to read this thread that I posted, it can/could be a great help to you:

http://forums.poz.com/index.php?topic=4717.0

Make the BEST of each Day!

[tigger2376]

On kaletra/kivexa, having the same problems until doc gave me something called buspirone. don't know whether its available in US  but it works for me. its evidently normally used for panic attacks, but it seems to just switch me off, especially if taken with a small glass of wine,(all I can tolerate these days, I'm a cheap date now!).Hope that helps..shiatsu massage techniques may also help

[Christine]

i interrupted more advanced the disease = high viral load. like i said im new at this. im relieved if this is not true.

That is not always true. One can have a high viral load for a period of time, and not be considered to have an advanced disease. Advanced disease generally entails very low cd4 counts, and multiple opportunistic infections, along with a high viral load. Although, it is possible to have what is considered an advanced disease with a lower viral load.

Have you consided talking to a counselor or therapist? Stress and anxiety can make sleep very difficult.

What time do you take the Truvada? If it is in the PM you might want to talk to your doctor about switching it to the AM.

Christine

[MitchMiller]

It sounds like your problem is probably not anxiety because it is occurring every night... although that's still a possibility.  I have a history of restless sleep and these meds have meds it much worse (mainly sustiva).  I've tried many sleeping aids and ususally they do work if you take a large enough dose.  However, they typically leave me hung over the next day.  I believe after you take them regularly for some time the hang over proabably goes away.  I can usually grab 4 - 6 hours sleep/night during the work week and function on it.  It took a while to get used to being sleep deprived.  Stopping ALL caffiene REALLY helps a lot.  When I'm anxious, I can only manage 1 - 3 hours sleep at night.  I tried Xanax and that seems to work better for me than all the other sleep aids and it didn't leave me hung over.  However, my doc refuses to prescribe it!  He's given me Resterol, which is in the same class a Xanax, but it left me hung over also the only time I've taken it (15 mg).  It also didn't seem to work as well as the Xanax. 
I believe the best sleeping aids are barbituates.  I've read Seconal is still manufactured but really hard to get.  If anyone knows an internet pharmacy selling seconal without a prescription, please post it back here.

[dgls44]

~

[RapidRod]

Let me see. I've been on Ambien, Trazodone and now Lexapro. Out of all of them, Lexapro lets me sleep all night.